Keeping the Sabbath - Part 2

DAILY BYTE

This week we’re looking at the biblical concept of the Sabbath. In the introductory comments yesterday I suggested that the Sabbath is like a compass that can point us to the true north principles of God, especially when we’ve lost our way and find ourselves deep in the rough of the difficulties and demands of life.

For the Sabbath is really about whom we worship, upon whom we depend, and in whom we place our trust. The word ‘Sabbath’ appears for the first time in scripture in Exodus 16:23. God had just led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. They found themselves wandering in the desert, deep in the rough as it were, without food, without any means of provision, utterly vulnerable, and utterly dependent upon God.

For the Israelites the wilderness is a place in which they need to learn to live according to a completely different set of rules, particularly the lessons of dependency and trust. This point is driven home with startling power in Ex 15 - 17. The Israelites are thirsty and hungry - in desperate need of the most basic of life's necessities. They had been led by God's hand out of bondage. The question is raised, 'Can this same hand give them food and water?' In quite dramatic ways that question is answered with an emphatic 'Yes!' They had been led, now they are fed by the hand of God.

It is in this context that the concept of Sabbath is introduced – one day in which they would cease their normal activity of gathering manna, the bread from heaven that fell on the ground every morning. By resting from their labours, the Israelites were reminded that it was not because of their own efforts that they were being fed, but purely because of the goodness and graciousness of God.

By establishing this practice, years later, when they had settled in the promised land, they would be reminded that their ongoing sustenance came not primarily from their own efforts, but from the hand of God.

And so the Sabbath became for them a powerful compass, a weekly re-orientation of their lives according to the true north principles of their faith. It reminded them who God was, and how it was that their lives were sustained, and it enabled them to see everything they did within the broader perspective of God’s purposes in their lives.

With this biblical background in mind, think about your own life and attitude towards God. Is being dependent upon the goodness of God something you actively embrace, or is it something you resist? Do you readily trust God for the basic necessities of your life, or do you see that as some kind of weakness? The discipline of keeping the Sabbath addresses these essential dimensions of our spiritual lives. Over the next few days we will be looking at some practical ways in which ‘keeping the Sabbath’ functions in our lives.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, this world places great store in qualities like independence and self-sufficiency. And so sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge that I am utterly dependent upon your goodness and generosity, and that without your gracious provision I couldn’t exist. But this is the truth, and the more I live out of this truth, the richer and freer my life will be. Help me to keep the Sabbath as one way of allowing this truth to sink deep into my being. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Ex 16:21-26

Morning by morning they gathered [the manna], as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much…. Moses said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.' " So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none."